


Thereafter

by CharonKatharsis



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Lucifer - Freeform, M/M, Sam Winchester - Freeform, after the apocalypse, mentions of - Freeform, not necessarily a nice story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 05:50:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11075340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharonKatharsis/pseuds/CharonKatharsis
Summary: Short insights into Dean and Cas' lives after Lucifer has been defeated.Written for someone who wanted something about any pairing and was ok with a not so nice story. This one is for you :)





	Thereafter

The first time Dean suspected something was off with Castiel was after the apocalypse that never was. They had beat the devil and Dean himself had buried what had been left of Sammy and only returned to the camp in order to fetch one last item he wanted to take along as a last memory. He knew full well that none of those he had taken along on his mission had any chance of survival and fully expected the camp to be scattered when he arrived there days later. The devil was gone and so were his demons so humanity was free, there was no more need to stay behind fences. But when he arrived there in the dead of night there were lights from some of the cabins. And as if beside himself he found himself drawn to the cabin that had been Cas‘. Readying his gun he stepped inside to find a familiar form resting on the bed. Someone who should be dead by all accounts, someone who could not be Castiel. He gripped the colt tighter and something about the way Cas opened his eyes made him step back. There was a shine about his eyes for a moment, the feeling of something so ancient it gave him goose bumps. Even the blood-soaked bandages could not distract him from those eyes that seemed to see right through him and into his soul. The moment was broken when it spoke to him: “You came back, Dean.”

\----------------

Castiel was the same he had been before their final stand with Lucifer. And yet Dean couldn’t shake the feeling that he had changed. Cas had laughed at his idea that maybe something angelic was left in him and the bitterness and longing in this laughing had made it obvious to Dean that he must have been mistaken. In time he even came to tell himself he had been mistaken about what he had seen upon returning to the camp. In time he came to trust him again and after slowly getting him off his drugs Castiel even came closer to being the way he had been before everything had gone to hell.

“We need to find a place to stay for the night”, Castiel reminded him after carefully having scanned the area together with Dean. Their earlier run-in with a bunch of vampires had left the nest dead and Dean wounded.

“Love it when you boss me around”, Dean dead-panned and checked his ammunition just to stall. “We can sleep in the car.”

Cas sighed. “We can sleep in the car or we find a motel. We need to clean your wounds and make sure nothing gets infected.” He looked onto the ground and Dean could practically feel his remorse. Aeons ago all it would have taken would have been a touch of the angel’s hand to heal him. But there were no more angels walking the earth.

“You know what?” Dean resigned. “Fine, we find a motel within the next hour, we stay there. If not-“ He shrugged.

“I could drive”, Castiel offered but Dean did not dignify him with an answer, instead taking the driver’s seat.

\----

They did find a motel, one of the few ones that had opened after... everything. The small town was half in ruins but the other half was being rebuilt. The clerk did not ask their name but they had to dip their hands into what probably was holy water before she gave them the key to the guest room. 

The room turned out to be just big enough to fit a double bed and the attached bathroom was also far from big but it sufficed. Matter-of-factly Dean began undressing, janking the cloth off of where it had started to stick to his wounds. Castiel rummaged through his backpack to get out their first aid kit. Fortunately for him, Cas had not developed the shaking addicts usually showed and in another life Dean would have considered him an apt medic but in this life... in this life he could not help compare him to the angel he had been. It wasn’t fair but Dean just couldn’t help himself as he looked down on Castiel who was kneeling in front of the bed, busy cleaning off a wound he had somehow gotten on his leg.

“I never got why you never came to me”, Castiel mumbled and Dean almost wondered if e had actually said it when he fell silent for a moment. “Back in the camp, I mean. There has been a time when you did want.”

“Shut up.” Dean told him, surprisingly calm.

“I would not have denied you. There was nothing I would have denied you.” He looked up and Dean swallowed hard. There had been a time when he had imagined... but that time was long since gone. At least he told himself it was. But seeing Castiel like this, hearing his voice, knowing Cas had known and getting lost in the depth of his eyes again he could no longer see the reason why he had been so adamant. “There still isn’t, if you’d have me.”

“Cas...”

\------------------

Five years on the road and five years after the final battle the world had gone back to normal as much as possible. People either clung to their crosses or, and that seemed to be the majority of people, they straight-up denied the apocalypse. They lived as if nothing had happened, as if there hadn’t been millions of deaths in the US alone. Dean would never forget the motel they had stayed the night with the world maps where someone had simply crossed out the Netherlands.

Sometimes he wondered how he and Castiel could pretend just as well. There was no way Cas could fill the space Sam had left behind and for Dean he couldn’t even fill the one he himself had left when he had fallen but it was all they had.

“So, this hunt...” Castiel started, still looking out of the window, beholding the wilderness that had taken over a small, deserted town.

“Not a hunt.” Dean had not yet told Castiel where they were going but they would arrive soon. “It’s more like a visit.”

That caught Castiel’s attention. “A visit? Whom will we visit?”

Someone who was dead and gone. A place that still crushed whatever remained of Dean’s heart. A reminder of the day Dean had lost the greatest part of himself. “Sammy... we’re going to see the grave.”

\---

The grave was far out and hidden from view. It was just the way Dean had last seen it but the make-shift cross was on the verge of falling to pieces. He could still make out the toy soldier he had put at its base. “Sammy...”

“A nice grave, Dean. A bit unobtrusive but that has always been your style, hasn’t it?” Castiel stepped next to him and before Dean could say something, he was pulled down into a kiss. “I still would have loved to have something a more deserving, you know?” Castiel’s fingernails started digging painfully into Dean’s shoulder. “Then again you have always been as blind as you are pretty.”

Dean felt cold because he knew this presence. The one he had felt when he had reached the camp after they he had killed the devil-

“Oh, come on, Dean. You never even noticed? You’ve literally been in bed with Satan and you had no clue?” He laughed. “But guess what – time’s up for you. And for humanity.” There was a sickening crunch and the last thing Dean vaguely registered was the devil kicking down the cross before the world turned black.


End file.
